JEAN SLAMS TORY PAYOUTS
Severances cost $ 60M over three years, he says
Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government paid out nearly $ 60 million in severances over the past three years, Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean charged Wednesday during an election campaign stop in Edmonton.
Taking aim at Conservative Leader Jim Prentice, who has tabled a budget that calls for tax increases in the face of a growing government deficit, Jean said documents show $ 31 million in severance was paid to former employees in 19 departments from 2011- 14, and that nearly $ 28 million was paid out by Alberta Health Services.
“The Progressive Conservatives got rid of the charitable tax credit, but at the same time these new documents show they have never been more addicted to gold- plated severance packages,” Jean said at an event hosted by Wildrose candidate Steven Thompson in EdmontonMcClung.
“When Mr. Prentice tells Albertans a tax hike is justified, he’s not telling them about these massive golden handshakes.
“How can Albertans trust a Progressive Conservative government that does this?”
Disclosing information obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Jean said 68 AHS employees received severance packages of $ 100,000 or more between 201114, including one former executive vice- president who was paid $ 737,000.
In addition, documents show that in one year, $ 6.3 million in severance was paid out by Alberta Justice, $ 3.7 million was paid out by Service Alberta and a little more than $ 1 million each was paid out in one year by Alberta Agriculture and Alberta Culture.
At the same time as Progressive Conservatives appeared to disclose large severance payments as part of a sunshine list, they passed rules to prevent the disclosure of severance and salaries paid to some individuals, Jean alleged.
“The PCs called this the gold standard in transparency, but instead, it has become the gold standard in secrecy,” Jean said.
“Mr. Prentice needs to let Albertans know how many people got secret severance, how much secret severance they were paid, and why it was received.”
At a campaign appearance Wednesday in Red Deer, Prentice responded by announcing his government will more tightly control severance payments and implement sunshine list legislation that will include managers at Alberta Health Services, universities and school boards, as well as within government agencies, boards and commissions.
Calling some of Jean’s assertions about severance “a tad hypocritical,” Mike Storeshaw, a spokesman for Prentice, said Heather Forsyth, the former interim Wildrose leader and a former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, is in line to receive $ 627,000 in severance.
One of the first actions Prentice took upon becoming premier in the fall of 2014 was to cap severance payments for provincial staff members not covered by collective bargaining agreements, Storeshaw said.
Kerry Williamson, a spokesman for Alberta Health Services, said the nearly $ 28 million in severance the agency paid over three years was not a secret.
The figure was disclosed in February at a news conference by AHS executive director Vickie Kaminski, whose speaking notes mention that a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request had been received.
Jean shot back at the PCs later Wednesday, saying Prentice had eight months to introduce legislation that would broaden the sunshine list and failed.
Jean said the Wildrose would pass legislation that limits severance packages for all political staff and senior government and agency officials, and would disclose all of them.
“It’s not the Government of Alberta’s money, it is the taxpayers’ money,” Jean said.
“Why in the world would the Progressive Conservatives keep these payments secret from the people of Alberta?
“Albertans deserve better than this.”